


Coming Back

by Ice20



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Desert Island, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-03-13
Packaged: 2018-01-11 18:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1176340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ice20/pseuds/Ice20
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story takes place at the beginning of episode 2x01.<br/>Diggle and Felicity come to Lian Yu to get Oliver back in Starling City.<br/>But what happened to the three of them while they were on the island, waiting to get back together?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody! :)
> 
> This is my first Arrow ff – I hope you'll enjoy it!
> 
> The idea to write this ff was born after I watched the first part of episode 2x01, when Diggle and Felicity came to Lian Yu and got Oliver back home. Since they didn't show us how they all got back to Starling City – another plane, a ship, how much time it took them, etc... – and since I would have loved to see the three of them on the island for much more time, I decided to write this ff.
> 
> Note: I'm not a native English speaker and I don't have beta(s), so please forgive me for any grammar mistake.
> 
> A/N: I have already written the whole story, so you can be certain I'm not gonna leave it incompleted. I'll post a chapter every few days

Oliver was running through the thick undergrowth, sweat sliding along his bare chest, when a sound caught his attention, suddenly.

He raised his head and looked at the sky.

A plane was approaching the island of Lian Yu, where he had sort of retired some months ago, leaving Starling City and his family and friends and the destruction his mother had helped creating and he had not been able to prevent. Nobody had even once tried to bother him in that Godforsaken place during those months – mainly, because nobody knew where he was. But there was also another good reason: that island had been his “prison” for five years, had taken him away from his family and friends against his will and had deeply changed him – not necessarily in a good way. So it was easy to believe that he would never come back there for any reason any time soon.

Yet, there he was, there he had been for the last few months, all alone.

Now, somebody was getting closer – he could clearly hear the noise made by an old aircraft engine – and he had an intense sensation that, whoever it was that had bothered to come all the way to the island, they were coming for him.

Oliver Queen grabbed his bow and ran faster into the well-known forest.

** **

Diggle had somehow managed to land on the beach of Lian Yu and free Felicity and himself from the belts of the parachutes they had used to get there. That had been a very traumatic experience for the poor girl that was now throwing up not far from him. Fortunately, she had managed to make it to the beach. He really was grateful for it and thanked her.

“My pleasure!” was Felicity's sarcastic response.

She clearly wasn't pleased after he had forced her to try such an experience. Diggle couldn't help but chuckle a little. He didn't know the IT girl was so afraid of height, otherwise he would probably have left her in the hotel and would have come to the island alone. But he knew she would never agree with this idea – she wanted to be there, too. For Oliver. For their common friend.

Once Diggle had folded up the parachute again and put it in his backpack, he stood up and for the first time looked at his surroundings. From the beach, all he could see was a forest and the top of mountains, nothing out of the ordinary. There was no movement nor any sign of civilization apparently; it looked like nobody was there, but he knew the truth was the exact opposite.

The only peculiar thing that caught his eye was a mask, impaled on a dry branch not far from them. It was painted in black and white, and the colors were now fading a bit due to the sunbeams. It was evident that it had been there for quite a long time, probably years. Although nobody was wearing it right now, it had something, like an aura that surrounded it and made it look scary and evil. Diggle could feel it. The fact that an arrow was trespassing it through one of the eyes, then, spoke volumes.  
He adjusted his backpack and signed Felicity to follow him.

The girl couldn't help herself but shiver a bit looking at the mask and the clear message it sent.

_Back away._

She silently walked after her friend.

** **

Diggle and Felicity walked together into the forest following an old path that ran between short bushes and big trees, not really knowing where to go. They were trying to orientate and were fairly sure they could make it back to the beach if they needed it – after all, Dig had been a soldier previously and knew how to orientate in the wild wilderness.

However, about an hour and no signs of Oliver later, Felicity loudly sighed in exasperation.

“Why isn't here such a thing like road directions, here? Then, on the other hand, why should something like that be in a place like this? I mean, obviously there is no tourists coming here for vacations and relax – I know it. And the only person living in this forest is also the one that had already been there for, like, a fifth of his whole life! Why should there be any road direction, then? But they would be so useful right now and - ”

“Felicity – stop, please. Take a deep breath and a sip of water; we could even sit down and rest for some minutes if you want. I know you are frustrated”

She sighed again and motioned Diggle not to stop.

“I'm not tired. It's just... I don't know. All these places looks just identical and we've not seen any sign of him, yet. And it's so silent! No noise at all. Except for the birds, obviously. Can you hear them?” She saw the look he threw her and his half smile. “No, of course you can't, 'cause I've started babbling again, so I'll stop it right now” she said and shut her mouth.

Diggle laughed and squeezed her shoulder. He knew it wasn't exactly going like Felicity had planned – she had been sure she would have found Oliver in the exact moment when they land and would just convince him to come back home in a blink of the eye. But he had been fairly sure that was not how things were going to go. They would have to find him in this thick forest in the first place, and then he surely won't be easy to convince to come back.

He had been right.

He started walking on a slight slope when he heard something and lifted is closed fist in the air, silently telling Felicity to stop and not make a move. He also grabbed his gun – just in case.

They stayed still for a very long minutes scanning their surroundings and not seeing anything out of the ordinary, before they began walking again. Only, this time, it was Felicity that stopped him.

“Dig?”

She simply pronounced his name, but the way she did it, and the panic he could hear in her voice, made his skin crawl. The look on her face when he turned, then, was of pure fear. And he immediately understood why. His blood ran cold instantly, a sheen of sweat covering his back.

He had already seen a landmine before, so he knelt and tried to examine it. The only thing that came to him mind to try and save Felicity was to disarm the device. He knew it would not be easy, but that was the only option they had. That was their only chance.

“It's a land mine”, he explained. “I'm gonna try and disarm this”, he told her in what he hoped was a confident and reassuring voice.

Then, another voice, one the both of them had not heard in a long time, shouted, “You can't”.

They felt a wave on relief and knew they had finally found Oliver.

** **

Diggle raised his head and spotted his friend on the branch of a high tree, not far from them. He was shirtless and had his bow in his hand. Felicity too saw him, following Diggle's gaze. Her poor heart skipped far more than a beat, noticing how high Oliver had somehow managed to climb.

“Diggle, back away! Felicity, don't move!” he said in a loud peremptory tone.

Diggle did as he was told, although he was a little reluctant leaving Felicity, even if he knew Oliver had some plan in mind to save her life.

They heard the sound of an arrow piercing a branch and the next thing they knew Oliver had grabbed felicity and they had landed together on the hard ground while the landmine exploded right behind them. For an awkward moment the two of them stayed there, their bodies pressed together.

“You're...God, you're sweaty”, she said.

He fixed his blue eyes in hers and Felicity did not miss the hint of his typical half-grin, the one he always gave her when she said something funny and absolutely inappropriate – which is something that happened a lot. She just stared back at him, 'till Diggle broke the silence.

“You're a hard man to find”, he stated, matter of fact.

Oliver turned his head to face the former soldier rapidly, than turned it again and Felicity could hear him saying something in a low, cold tone.

_You should not have come here._

** **

  
Oliver got up and helped Felicity getting on her feet again, then he shook Diggle's hand.

“Are you ok?”, Diggle asked her.

“Yeah.... yeah, I'm ok, I just – you know, I did not expect to be landmines here”, she answered, curiosity evident.

Oliver did not answer her unspoken question about the fact that there were landmines on an island that everybody thought was desert and always had been, before Oliver got there. He completely avoided her gaze, his eyes fixed on the trees behind her. Then he shook his head and told them to follow him.

“Are we going to your house? I mean, not a real house. I know you don't have something like it here, don't you? I mean-” she trailed off, noticing his half-grin and realizing she had started babbling again. Diggle also was smiling. For a moment, it was like they were back together in the Arrow-cave.

Diggle and Felicity walked behind Oliver, following him wherever he was going to take them.

Diggle was lost in his thoughts. He was wondering why had Oliver decided to come back to this island. And, more important, why hadn't he shown himself before the landmine accident? It was pretty eident that he had already spotted them walking in the forest and he was also following them before Felicity put her feet on that explosive device. Why had he decided not to show himself, then?

Felicity was also lost in similar thoughts. She was wondering how could Oliver bear to stay in that place all alone, day after day, nobody to talk to. She had not missed how his voice sounded strange, his tone low. Like he was not used to use his voice, like he had not spoken at all even at himself for a very long time. It sounded a bit gruff and scratchy.

It was only when Oliver cleared his throat that they realized they had finally reached their destination. Felicity let out a quiet “Wow” in surprise.

They had arrived to a clearing, there were many short bushes and only a few tall trees left there. And in the middle of those, there was the wreckage of a plane reflecting the sun's rays, that, judging on the leaves and the ivy and musk covering it, had been there for quite a long time. It was an unusual but non the less breathtaking sight.

** **

Oliver cleared his throat, silently telling his friends they had reached their destination – the plane he was currently using as his residence.

He had walked all the way from the place in the forest he had found them, to the wreckage of the plane, barely saying anything. He had used the long way to get there, partly because he knew they would not be able to follow him if he took one of the others, the shorter ones he was used to, partly because he needed some time to clear his mind a bit.

He was still quite shocked.

They had found him. They had come all the way to the island – to his island – just to see him. He didn't even know how they had managed to find him, he had been very careful to leave no trace Felicity could find. And he probably would jut have stayed hidden in the trees if the I.T. girl had not put her foot on the landmine. He could not let something happen to her. Not to Felicity. Not on this damn island that had already taken away from him so many people during the last five years. So he had shown himself and saved her.

And he had felt such an emotion seeing them again. Feeling Felicity's body against his. Shaking Diggle's hand. It's not like he felt lonely, not at all – he was used to be alone in those well-known surroundings. He had voluntarily decided to stay there, also. But non the less during some nights he felt something, like a strange kind of nostalgia for the people he had used to spend most of his nights with in the last seven months.

He shook his head and got into the plane and rested his bow on one of the green, gray and black boxes that were the only furniture there. His friends followed him inside.

Diggle made a joke about the non civilization he was living in, while Felicity looked at the place – there wasn't much to see honestly – and asked him if he had lived there, the first time he had been on the island. He said that, yes, he had stayed there for some of those five years, which was true. He did not however add anything else about all the other inhabited places that were on Lian Yu, nor tell them all the memories related to that shitty place in particular, old images of friends long gone now, of days and nights spent inside that plane, the jokes and the trainings and the talking that took place there. It was too much to explain. He did not even think he would be able to properly tell all that.

Probably Felicity thought however that his poor response was due to the fact that he was not happy to see them, 'cause she started blabbing again about how they had managed to come there by plane flown by a Chinese man that did not even talk English and it was such a bad experience she had actually felt relieved when they had landed and she was so thirsty right now that “you could at least offer us some water, you know? Or coconut”

He smiled a little – that was typical Felicity – and grabbed a bottle of water from one of the boxes.  
“I'm fresh out of coconut, sorry. And I'm happy to see you”, he reassured her with a soft smile.

Her smile back was so bright it almost hurt. But he knew that what was to come would not be a funny conversation. He inhaled deeply before speaking again.


	2. Evening and Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody! Chapter 2 is up! :)
> 
> As already said at the beginning of chapter 1, I'm not a native Enlish speaker, so please forgive me for any grammar mistakes.
> 
> Hope you're gonna enjoy!

They did it. Oliver didn't know how, but in the end they had somehow managed to convince him to come back to Starling City. Not as the Vigilante, though. He would come back just as Oliver Queen, the rich playboy, owner of a nightclub and soon-to-be CEO, whose mother was now in jail after destroying half of the Glades.

“So, you promise?”

He sighed. “Yes”.

“Yay! We did it, Dig!”, Felicity almost yelled, hugging both of her friends. She was so happy Oliver had accepted. She was really afraid they would not convince him. Contrary to her predictions, they did it indeed – and it only took them a little less that an hour.

Diggle patted her on the shoulder, knowing how anxious she had been the previous days, thinking about this conversation.

Oliver did nothing but ask “So, when are we gonna come back?”. He was still astonished – everything was happening a bit too fast, and he really hoped they would not have to get back in just an hour or so. He needed a little more time – let's say, about half a day was the perfect solution.

Diggle threw a glance at his watch. Almost five o'clock pm. The sun was was getting down slowly.

“Well, we have to stay here tomorrow. The next morning, a ship is gonna get here and take us to the mainland. So, we have about thirty-six hours before getting back, if you have some unfinished business to take care of here”, he explained.

Oliver raised his eyebrow. Now, that was _a little too much_ time.

“Thirty-six hours? Why so much time? Why not tomorrow morning?”

“Felicity wanted to make sure she had time enough to persuade you”

Their favorite IT girl, now sitting on one of the big boxes, nodded enthusiastically at him. He got even more perplexed.

“So, what? You thought that if you could not convince me today, you could somehow persuade me tomorrow? You know me Felicity, I'm quite stubborn if I want to be. And it's not so easy to convince me to do anything I don't want to”

She rolled her eyes and let out an indignant sigh.

“Yes, I noticed, thanks. I know you're as stubborn as a mule. Me and Dig know better than anybody else. But, you know? I can be even more insistent that you can imagine. For example, I could just start babbling about random things and not stop for the next day and a half, would be that be enough to convince you? So, here we go, I'll start with a funny story. There was this girl I shared my room with at the MIT, and she was really crazy, like, completely crazy, and she once wanted to-”

Oliver raised his hands in defeat. He was afraid her story would _really_ last for hours and he was not used to hear people talk anymore. And right now listening to Felicity's ramblings was as tempting as being hit by a truck full of screaming Finnish rock stars. What the hell! He needed some time to re-adapt to other people again. And he had to do it slowly.

“Ok, I get it”, he just stated.

Felicity smiled satisfied raising her fingers in a “V” for victory, and Oliver half-grinned back.

“You know, I really missed you”, he quietly told her, and her smile grew even bigger if it was possible. Then he looked at Diggle and added: “And you, too. I missed you both, even if I did not fully realized it 'till just now”.

Diggle just nodded back, knowing those words meant a lot. It was not a usual thing for Oliver to just open up about his feeling in such a clear way.

The three of them all sat on the boxes in a comfortable silence for some minutes. Oliver sometimes threw them quick glances, silently examining his friends. They looked fine, maybe a bit tired – after all, it had been a long day for them, too. He just realized how much time they had probably spent arranging everything, the travel from Starling City to China, and then from the mainland to that island.

He clearly remembered how long it had been for him, one year ago, when he did exactly the same route, but in reverse direction. It looked like forever. When he finally got to Starling City, he was devastated and felt like shit due to the different time zone. Probably Diggle and Felicity felt the same way.

Then Felicity stirred and broke the silence.

“So... we've got more than a day to spend here, right?” she asked. “What are we gonna do? We could just relax a bit before coming back to the city. You know, like a little holiday or something like that. We could do... Camping? And maybe visit the island. You could show us the places you like the most. It sound like fun!”

Her enthusiasm was evident. Oliver's was not. He didn't look amused; his jaw was clenched. The atmosphere suddenly seemed different. Heavier. Colder.

“It's not a summer camp here, Felicity!” Oliver said, his tone harsh. _Too harsh_ , he realized, already regretting his words. He took a deep breath to calm down.“I'm gonna get you two your dinner” he added.

Then he grabbed his bow and just got out without saying anything else. He did not pay too much attention to the questioning look Felicity had on her face, nor to Diggle's eyes following him. He just needed to get out of that plane that suddenly seemed to be too small for the three of them. Go hunting was just a pathetic excuse. He disappeared into the forest and started hunting without paying much attention to what he was doing, his mind mulling over what had just happened.

Truth was Felicity had brought back some memories that were not pleasant. He knew she didn't want to upset him, but he could not control himself. He suddenly was feeling so frustrated. They could not understand all the bad things that happened on that island, in that horrible place. They did not know about it, and he surely was not going to tell them, otherwise they would just be scared to death. And they would look at him differently, which is something he couldn't stand at all.

Some of his memories related to Lian Yu were so bad he could not get rid of them even in his dreams. They always came back hunting him. That was no right place for a relaxing holiday. The island didn't look like it was a particularly strange place – nothing was out of the ordinary, at first glance. Truth was far from it.

That place was evil, there was something about it... too many bad things had already happened there. He could not just pretend and act like he was camping with his friends and show them those places like it didn't matter, when truth was they were in a dangerous land where nothing good had ever happened. He suddenly felt like he was in Stephen King's book “Shining”, where the hotel was not just the old big building it looked like, but it also had something in it, like an evil spirit that made things happen. Same thing was with Lian Yu.

Felicity would better get it. Get it as soon as possible.

He tied two rabbits' carcasses and went back to the plane.

** **

Diggle was good at hiding his anxiety from Felicity.

“Did I say something wrong?” she had asked confused, just after Oliver had all but ran out of the fuselage.

He had just shook his head. “No, you didn't. It was just Oliver being Oliver. Bad things happened to him, here. He was just... worried, I think”

She had sighed in frustration. “Yeah, I know bad things happened here, even a blind man would have noticed it by now. I just wanted to break the silence. As usual, I said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Typically me”, she had said, desperation evident in her voice.

She had covered her face with her hands.

Diggle had squeezed her shoulder.

“Don't worry. He's not angry. You know him: he'll come back here and act like nothing happened. You should do the same thing. It was not big deal, he just snapped. You know him, when something's bothering him, he reacts that way”

Truth was Oliver had scared him the exact moment he had disappeared into the forest, too. All of a sudden he had became aware of the fact that they were in an unfamiliar place they didn't know the least. If Oliver would just disappear into the forest and not show up again – and he had no doubt he could do it if he wanted, just like he had hidden in the forest when they had just arrived – then Felicity and him knew no way to get back to the shore and the ship that was going to be there in thirty-five hours. They all but depended on Oliver now – but he was sure his friend wasn't going to do anything stupid.

If there was one thing John trusted Oliver for, it was the fact that he never, never intentionally let down people he cared for. Oliver was a friend he surely could rely on. And he had said he was going to get them dinner, meaning he would come back. Oliver was a man of his word, and Diggle was sure he would be back soon. So he just sat there with Felicity, relaxing and watching the sun lower and the shadows lengthen.

Then, Oliver got out from nowhere with two flayed rabbits. Felicity got up and ran toward him.

“Thank God you're here! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to upset you... I spoke without thinking, as usual”

Oliver smiled softly at her. “Don't worry. I overreacted. Not your fault. But you have to understand you're in a place that is not safe. Okay?”

She nodded.

Oliver smiled at Diggle too “I bought you dinner”

“Just in time, man! I'm hungry” Dig laughed. “I'll help you light the fire”

** **

Dinner went fairly well. Nobody talked about what had happened between Oliver and Felicity, as for a mutual agreement.

They sat outside the plane, a fire burning between them and heating them up, enjoying the amazing view of the sunset and eating the rabbits. Well, at least Felicity and Diggle were eating them. Oliver was just nibbling some sort of fruit.

“You sure you don't want any of this?” Dig asked him, indicating his meat.

“No, I'm fine”

“You know, it's good, man. I mean, when you adjust to the fact that there is no salt at all”

Oliver chuckled – the lack of salt had been a problem for him, too, at the beginning. “Yes, I know. Different from what you usually eat back at Starling City”

“It seems to me like it's the first time I eat a real rabbit. The taste is so different... compared to this, the ones I am used to seem artificial”

Oliver nodded. “It is. That's one of the first things I noticed when I got here the first time. Though what I ate was not a rabbit, but a bird”.

He smiled at the memory of a long gone time.

“Is that why you eat so little?” Felicity asked out of curiosity. “After five years, you got used to this kind of food. To these tastes, also – genuine, natural. The food in Starling City must taste... strange, at least. Too spiced, probably. And that is too much, compared to the quantity you can get here”

Her analysis was correct. Absolutely correct, Oliver thought. _Smart girl_.

Diggle and Felicity were both looking at him. Now, that was an interesting conversation. None of them had ever thought about Oliver's eating habits too much – apart for the fact that they were worried sometimes, when they did not see Oliver eat for a whole day. But they dismissed those thoughts usually, noticing Oliver never seemed to be hungry or tired, nor he was losing weight. He was muscular and well built, which meant he was also eating enough. He just ate what he wanted, when he wanted. Usually alone. If he was okay with that, so were the both of them.

Now, they understood why.

They sat in a comfortable silence for the rest of the dinner, eating and drinking water. They enjoyed the tranquility that place offered and the noises of the nocturnal animals getting out of their dens.

Then Felicity shivered, feeling the cold breeze of the night hitting her. Diggle noticed it immediately.

“Are you cold? Here, take my jacket”, he said, handing her the cloth.

“Thanks. I thought it would be warm on this island, but it's not”

“It can get very cold here. You're lucky it's not raining right now and there's not too much wind, otherwise you would both freeze. Let's get inside, so you both can settle for the night” Oliver interacted. He wasn't bothered the least by the weather conditions. In fact, he was just wearing a long sleeved, cotton, black shirt.

He got up and showed Diggle and Felicity two black sleeping bags. They looked old and used but not dirty. One of them had been used recently – it was the one Oliver had slept in the last months, probably – and was in the far corner of the plane; the other one was neatly folded into another one of the military boxes. It looked like it had been washed and folded accurately a long time ago. Nobody had used it recently.

Oliver handed it to Felicity, knowing Diggle would never let their friend sleep in the already-used one. Diggle was a real gentleman.

“You can sleep in here if you want. It's gonna get colder during the night, but you'll feel warm enough in here. I'll light up a fire anyway, so you'll feel better”

“Thanks. But, what about you?”

“She's right, Oliver. You don't have any other of these?”

“No, I don't. But I don't need it”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. You and Felicity both sleep in these tonight and don't worry about me”

“Really, Oliver.?”

“I'll be fine, guys. Don't worry so much”

They positioned the bags so that they were not to far from the fire but also not too close. In case the wind changed direction of intensity, stroking up the flames, nothing would happen to them. _Never underestimate the force of the natural elements_ , it was another lesson he had learned soon when he got there.

They settled down for the night, Diggle and Felicity in the sleeping bags, Oliver sitting near the fire, leaning against the cracked hull.

** **

Felicity turned on her back for the millionth time and wrapped the sleeping bag tighter around herself. She didn't know how long she had been lying on the floor of the plane, in the almost complete darkness. The only light source was the fire Oliver had lighten up for her and Diggle, and the stars in the sky.

Felicity had never seen them so clearly... the stars were brighter that they appeared in Starling City. She was so used to the light of the street lamps and the houses, and the pollution of cars and industries tarnishing the air, that she had never really thought about the stars, bright and silent company for lonely men far away from home. Men like Oliver, that in five years without things like electricity had grown so accustomed to the dark that he was not bothered by it the least, and that found the stars were a good company and a natural source of light during cold, clear nights. A gift he appreciated so much. Oliver, whose body relaxed visibly in that obscure and silent night, listening to the sounds of nocturnal creatures and the wind.

Felicity was well aware of the fact that there was no noise at all here. In Starling City, you could not avoid the noises even if you tried very hard. There would be cars and traffic and people talking and screaming, games on tv and talks-hows and phones ringing everywhere. Here, there was nothing like that. Here, she could hear the silence, maybe for the first time in her whole life. Felicity became all of a sudden aware of the fact that she had never seen Oliver listening to music through I-Pods or computers, even when he was alone, training or just reading or thinking. While most of the people she knew could not bear the silence around themselves, they absolutely needed some sort of noise to keep them company, silence – the same silence that was keeping her awake – was a welcome friend for Oliver.

 _Silence meant safety for him_. Felicity realized it like in an epiphany. She knew bad things had happened on Lian Yu during those long five years he had been trapped there – she had after all spent long nights studying his bare chest and big scars without him acknowledging it. She now realized that silence was a good thing from Oliver's point of view. It meant nobody was getting closer to him. It meant nobody was trying to hurt him again.

She sighed in frustration, thinking about all the bad things that had happened to him, trying to imagine how his life had been and how it had changed him so much and so deeply.

“Felicity? Are you awake?”. It was John.

“Yes. You too? Well, you obviously are, otherwise you would not be talking to me right now. Unless I'm hearing voices, but I don't think so” she mumbled.

Dig chucked quietly in the dark.

“I did not wake you up, did I?” she asked him, concerned.

“No, you didn't, don't worry. Although I can hear your thoughts even from here” he joked. “Something's wrong?”

“No, I was just, you know, reflecting about many things...” she trailed off.

“You can't sleep, uh?”

She sighed again. “I'd love to sleep. I'm so tired! But I can't. It's to silent, and it's awkward sleeping on the floor, and not in my bed. I can't find a comfortable position” she admitted.

“Yes it is. Thinking about it, I believe it was just as difficult for him...” he gestured toward Oliver's dark form “...when he got back. I'm not surprised the very first weeks Moira and Walter were worried about the fact that he slept on the floor in his room instead of his king-sized bed”

“He's got a king-sized bed? So nice to know! ...What?! No! No, I mean... arrgh! Why do I even say things like that?”

John laughed heartily.

“So... he slept on the floor? Really?” she tried to take the discussion back to the point where they had left it.

Even in the dark, she could feel Diggle smiling in amusement.

“Yes, he did. I once heard Mrs Queen taking about the fact that he slept with his windows open even when it rained or was cold outside” he explained.

“Well, I guess it makes sense after all. Sometimes it's difficult to break the habits”

“Yes, indeed” Diggle agreed.

“Just... look at him now. He's sleeping like a baby!” Felicity said.

She gestured toward Oliver, who was sleeping on the floor a little far away from them. It was the first time they ad actually seen him sleep peacefully – apart from the incidents during his Hood-job, but that's another story.

He made absolutely no sound and his face was relaxed. He was sleeping on a floor covered with dirt and leaves and loam, humid and cold. But he looked perfectly fine with it. It was “home” to him, it was “familiar” and “safe” and even if they found it difficult to understand, he looked more peaceful than they had ever seen him. They both stared at him in silence, Diggle grateful to see his friend rest, Felicity envying his peaceful sleeping, but also admiring his relaxed features and listening to his calm breathes, the shadows and lights of the fire playing on his face.

“You know, Dig? Looking at him now, I think he will never really come back to Starling City completely. A part of him will always be on this island... where it probably belongs, after all” the IT girl murmured.


	3. The Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody!  
> How are you? :)
> 
> really hope you're enjoying this story. Here is chapter 3.
> 
> As usual, forgive me for any grammar mistake.
> 
> Oh, and thank you so much for the kudos! :) Reviews are also very appreciated!

Diggle woke up with the sun rising. Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw were the clouds in the sky and a gray sheet metal covered in ivy. For a few seconds he stayed there, confused and disoriented. _Where the hell...?_ Then he remembered where he was. _The travel. Lian Yu. Meeting Oliver_. _The crashed plane._ He shook his head in an attempt to clear his brain from the sleepy fog it was still in.

 

He got out of the sleeping bag and stretched his arms and legs and was greeted by Oliver, sitting up, on a pile of military boxes, looking down at him, perched like a vulture with his knees up to his chest.

 

“Good morning!” he billionaire greeted him, brightly.

 

“'Morning”, he mumbled, still half asleep. “Coffee?” he asked.

 

Oliver laughed like he had just made a funny joke.

 

“Sorry, I am fresh out of coffee, too”, he said, being funny

 

Diggle grunted in response. 

 

There was no way he was going to be fully awake without his morning coffee. He briefly wondered how could Oliver be so full of energy, then he remembered that the lucky boy had slept for the most part of the night, while he and Felicity had just rolled over and over again trying to find a comfortable position.

 

He took the bottle of water Oliver was handing him and took a generous sip.

 

“So, what are you doing? I mean, sitting up there over that stack of boxes, surveying us? You're quite creepy, you know?”

 

Oliver chuckled softly, knowing Dig was right. “Sorry, I didn't mean to be. I'm just... I don't know. It's something somebody else used to do with me, when I just got here. I never really understood why until this morning, when I found myself doing exactly the same thing. It came just natural to me”

 

Diggle waited for the explanation to go on, but Oliver didn't add anything else and he just thought that he was not going to push that particular subject right now, when he was not even fully awake. Not to add the fact that it was a fairly good explanation after all, compared to the evasive and poor ones Oliver usually gave. Yes, Diggle would just accept it like it was, he decided, taking another sip from the now half empty bottle.

 

The silence then was broke by Felicity waking up.

 

Her hair was a complete mess and her eyes were still shut; the girl was not completely awake yet, given the fact that she seemed to be unable to even get out of her sleeping bag, not to mention the fact she couldn't reach her glasses from the place she had left them the previous day, no matter how much she tried to stretch her arm. Noticing her total lack of coordination – she looked like a worm wrapped up in that bag – Diggle helped her standing on her feet.

 

“Good morning, Felicity” he said, gently.

 

“Good morning” was also Oliver's greet.

 

An indistinct sound that only vaguely resembled a real word was all they got from the girl.

 

“I see you're not awake, too” Diggle said.

 

“Nt mshh sch”, she mumbled, rubbing her tired eyes.

 

“Sorry, what?”, he raised an eyebrow, genuinely confused.

 

That was an absurd situation. Probably also a funny one, judging on Oliver, who was grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

 

“I said, not much choice. Couldn't go back to sleep. Too much sun” she weakly explained, gesturing to the floor and then to the sky.

 

“That makes the two of us”, John patted her shoulder as a poor consolation.

 

“Is there coffee? I need a coffee”

 

Oliver grinned once again. That was way too much fun for him. Diggle made a mental note to take his revenge once back in Starling City.

 

“No Felicity, Oliver has got no coffee”, he patiently explained.

 

“Too bad”

 

Oliver laughed and offered her another bottle of water, and she took it gratefully.

 

“A shower? Can I at least have a shower? I stink” she said, embarrassed.

 

Both the men laughed.

 

“Yeah, I have the same problem, a shower would be very welcome. Oliver?”

 

“Sure”, he said.

 

He jumped down from the boxes he was sitting on and looked inside one of them, searching for something. Then he grabbed his bow and quiver, clearly used to take the wherever he went on the island – even when he only had to take a shower. He also grabbed a clean dark shirt, while Diggle grabbed his backpack, intending to take it with them and just leave it on the shore; it contained a change of clothes Felicty and him had decided to bring with them when they had first planned the trip. It had been Felicity's idea – a good one, he had to admit.

 

“Come on”, Oliver said, gesturing for them to follow him. “Ever had a shower under a waterfall?”

 

Both Felicity and Diggle shook their heads in deny.

 

** **

 

“Felicity, come on!”

 

“Uh, no guys, thanks. I think I'll just... uh, sit here watching you two. No! I mean, not watching you. I'm not a voyeur. I'll watch... the scenery. Which is beautiful, by the way”, she babbled.

 

And it really was, indeed. It was one of the most breath-taking landscapes she had ever seen in her whole life. Oliver ad taken them to a little river that originated on one of the mountains of the island and exactly in front of her fell into a waterfall about nine feet high and created a small lake, surrounded by the trees and dominated by the mountain just behind it. The water was limpid and calm and reflected the trees all around. It was a spectacle for the eyes. 

 

But that was not the point. That was just an excuse, and she was well aware that they knew it.

 

“Felicity, you were the one that asked for the shower. Here it is your shower” Oliver added, gesturing toward the waterfall, trying to convince her to get in the lake.

 

He and Diggle were already half immersed. They had taken off their t-shirts and shoes and socks. The three of them had mutually agreed not to embarrass each other, so they had kept on their trousers. They had promised Felicity all the privacy she needed, however, in case she wanted to just stay in her underwear. They didn't mind, not at all.

 

When they had just arrived, Felicity had taken off her t-shirt and shoes, remaining in her bra and jeans, but than had suddenly refused to get into the lake with them.

 

“No, thanks, really. I don't stink so much after all”

 

Oliver and Diggle exchanged a perplexed glance.

 

“Felicity, you stink as much as me and Oliver, here. So try to find a better excuse, uh?” Dig said, walking back to the shore and approaching her.

 

“Come on Felicity, it's not deep, if that's what you fear”, Oliver added, showing her the water reached just his waist in a not-so-casual gesture.

 

Truth was since the ship wreak he was afraid of big masses of water and tried to avoid them whenever he could. It was not a casual choice the fact that he had taken them to the little lake, and not the big Ocean.

 

“Hey, that's not a problem to me, I can swim!” she pouted, a bit offended.

 

She had after all spent most of her summer at her aunt's house in California, right in front of the warm Pacific Ocean, _of course she could swim!_ She not only could, but loved it.

 

So, she made clear swimming was not part of the problem, then.

 

Oliver was even more confused, now.

 

“There are no water snakes also”, he tentatively reassured her, thinking _that_ maybe that was what she was fearing.

 

“Thank God! But I'm not getting in it, anyway”, she stated.

 

“Then what is it? You have not shaved your legs? We don't mind. Do we, Dig?”

 

Diggle raised his eyebrow in a way that spoke volumes. _Seriously, man?!_ “No, absolutely not. I've seen worse. Come on”, he said.

 

Felicity's face went bright red. _How dare they..._

 

“I have shaved my legs! Why do you assume I didn't? I wear skirts almost everyday!” she replied, even more offended. “It's just...”

 

“Just?”

 

“Just what?”

 

“That water is ice cold, that is it! Happy, now?” she snapped.

 

So, that was it? All that tantrum, for such a little thing?

 

Dig and Oliver exchanged a knowing look. Oliver nodded imperceptibly, and Diggle nodded back, understanding. Then he quickly grabbed Felicity by the waist and pulled her over his shoulder and all but ran back into the lake, trying to ignore her screams.

 

“Let me go! I'm not gonna get in it. I'm not!”, she shouted.

 

She tried to kick him and break free from his grip, but she knew it was a futile effort. Diggle had much more force than she had.

 

He threw her in the cold water. Felicity screamed her lungs out, in an extended _AAAAAAARGH!_ that was so loud every bird flew away from the trees nearby. Then she hit the water, and the yell died in her throat, replaced by a sonorous gasp.

 

Meanwhile, Oliver and Diggle were both laughing so hard that tears threatened to fall down their cheeks. Felicity, instead, was so furious she had started threatening for their life, and that made the whole situation even more comical, listening their favorite IT girl menace a former soldier and a man that could kill with his bare hands, if he wanted to.

 

Once she had finally calmed down and stopped shouting at all – mostly because her teeth were chattering so hard she was completely unable to talk – Oliver playfully sprayed her with water.

 

“See? It was not so bad” he said.

 

Felicity threw him a glance that could have killed him instantly, if glances could kill. Then she jumped and grabbed him by his shoulders, put a hand on his head pushing him under the water's surface, as if she wanted to drown him. 

 

He and Diggle burst into another laugh.

 

Then they moved a little farther, leaving her space and privacy, not wanting to make her feel embarrassed. Felicity was still furious, meditating some kind of real, painful revenge.

 

 

 

Half an hour later, they were lying on a couple of big rocks near the water, enjoying the warm sun. Felicity had finally calmed down and was making jokes with Diggle. Oliver was lying next to them, quiet.

 

That was a familiar situation for him, and his mind was wandering through old memories of Shado, _beautiful Shado_ , that had once helped him washing the blood from his hands in the river that awful evening, when for the first time in his life he had intentionally killed a man and – even if he had done it for self-defence – he felt so guilty that he was just going to lose his mind definitely. Shado had taken care not only of his torn soul, but also of his body. Then, they had lain on similar big rocks, just talking about everything that came through their minds, she had spoken in Chinese, and he had tried to reply in that same language he was getting familiar with.

 

That was one of the most beloved memories he had, related to Lian Yu and to his long gone friend – and maybe love, even. 

 

“What are you thinking about?”, Felicity's soft and curious voice interrupter his thoughts.

 

“That must have been a good memory, judging from the smile on your face, isn't it Oliver?”, Diggle asked.

 

Oliver looked at them and then at the lake again. He had not even realized he was smiling.

 

“Yes, it is”.

 

“About what? If I may ask”

 

Oliver nodded. “About a person that was here with me. We once swam in the river and then sunbathed on the rocks just like we are doing now. It's a good memory indeed”

 

“That sounds nice. Where is this person now? He – or she – came back home, too?”, Felicity asked. She was curious, because she had not heard on tv anything about any other person that had been rescued with Oliver, or at least in that same place around that time.

 

Diggle instantly noticed Oliver's face darken and his smile disappear, replaced by a cold, distant, and maybe also sad expression.

 

“No”, he quietly said.

 

He didn't add anything else – it wasn't necessary, after all: _his face spoke volumes about the destiny of that one person_ – lost in his thoughts again, but not pleasant ones this time. They stayed there in silence for a few minutes, listening to the sound of the water falling and the birds chirping.

 

Then Oliver cleared his throat and grabbed his t-shirt, bow and quiver, and got on his feet.

 

“Let's get back to the plane”, he suggested. “I think it's almost lunch time, anyway”

 

There was a strange urgency in his voice, like he wanted to get away from that place – and maybe to his own memories, too – as soon as he could. So Felicity got up and Diggle grabbed the backpack. He helped Felicity getting down of that rock and then they walked back, not exchanging a single word about that mysterious person again, just doing some small talk about non-important things.

 

That was one of the many memories Oliver preferred not to talk about.

 

** **

 

Oliver had disappeared in the forest once again about half an hour before. He was going to bring them lunch, he had told them.

 

Diggle had offered his help, but Oliver had refused. 

 

“I'll be much faster alone, Dig”, he had said honestly. 

 

And Diggle had not doubted about it for a second. After all, Oliver was able to climb trees and then stay perfectly still on the highest branches, not making a single sound, as he had shown them the previous day. He knew the island better than his own mansion probably. And he could hunt using his bow – that was surely much more silent than his gun. Diggle knew he would only slow him down, so had accepted to stay there at the plane with Felicity, not feeling safe leaving the girl there all alone.

 

“You know, we could just go and discover this place alone, while he's not here”, she suddenly said, conspiratorially, getting up from the gray box she was sitting on.

 

Diggle glared in her direction. “Felicity, he already told you this is not Disneyland, you'd better listen to him... remember yesterday, with the landmine?”

 

She sighed. “I know, okay? I'm just getting bored. No computer, nothing to do... Maybe we could at least walk around the plane, not getting into the forest? Would you come with me? Please?”, she tried again.

 

This time, it was Diggle who sighed. He knew Oliver was right when he had told them that on this island bad things had happened, and that it was not a safe place. He knew it even before Felicity had put her foot on that landmine and almost blown away – hell, one needed to be blind not to see Oliver's scars, and those surely weren't on his back and chest before the shipwreck, nor they were self-inflicted, also. So, yes, he knew this was a dangerous place. And he knew he should tell Felicity _no_.

 

But non the less, he was also a bit curious about this place. Oliver had told them that there was at least another person with him, for some of those five years at least, while to everybody else he had said that he had been alone the whole time. Who was this person? Why was here? He had never described that place, also, if not using generic adjectives, like _cold_ , or _humid_ , or _forgotten_. So, yes, John had to admit, at least with himself, that he was curious to take a better look at it, too.

 

So he turned to Felicity and, feigning annoyance, said: “Okay, let's take a look, but we're not getting too far from this place”

 

She exulted and hugged him, then took his arm and dragged him outside. There was not much too see around there. They were in a clearing and there were only short bushes all around them. Diggle could identify some of them and told their names to Felicity, but he had never liked botany too much. After a few minutes, they had explored the whole place and found nothing interesting – except for a few rocks whose color was very peculiar and Felicity had decided to take home with her – _as a souvenir_ , she had said.

 

So they decided to get into the forest, never leaving out of sight the wreckage of the plane, anyway. They didn't know what to look for – after all, even in the forest there was not much to see, firstly because that was a normal forest, secondly because many dangers were hidden from inexperienced eyes, as they had begun to understand the previous day. 

 

They were just wandering around there, chitchatting about how boring and hard and difficult must be spend a whole year on a desert island like that – when after just 24 hours, they were already bored to death. And that's how Felicity found herself almost risking her life for the second time in two days, when her right leg fell into a hole on the ground, covered with branches and leaves and dirt. It was so well hidden that even paying attention she had completely missed it.

 

“What the-”, she exclaimed, out of surprise, half falling inside the hole, that was very big and also looked quite deep.

 

Fortunately she used her arms to support part of her weight and Diggle was only a few steps behind her; he ran to her side almost immediately, grabbing her left arm and preventing her from falling. He managed to lift her up, helping her out of the trap and quickly examining her leg. Fortunately it was not broken.

 

“Are you okay?”, he asked, concerned.

 

“Yeah. Oh God! I think I just had a heart attack...”

 

She could stand and walk without difficulty. There were just a couple of cuts and bruises, but nothing serious. Luckily, her long blue jeans had helped protecting her skin.

 

They stared at his other in silence for a few minutes, Felicity panting heavily and trying to regain her composure, Diggle thanking his lucky star because nothing serious happened, and the both of them silently wondering why the hell there were all those lethal traps around there, a place that was supposed to have always been deserted.

 

“That is it, I'm done exploring here!”, Felicity proclaimed resolutely.

 

Diggle agreed – relieved she had decided to stop this explorer game once and for all – and they turned back, walking the same way they had previously used to get there, watching even more carefully where they were walking. That island was full of traps and dangers and Felicity had already risked a serious injury twice – and that was not the best place to have any kind of accident.

When they made it to the wreckage of the plane, they breathed a sigh of relief.

 

They opted for taking one of the big boxes outside and sat on it, waiting for Oliver to come back with their food. They didn't have breakfast and were both hungry.

 

Then Felicity burst into a laugh.

 

Diggle looked at her questioningly. “What?”

 

“I knew you would have agreed with me!”, Felicity said. “I know you were curious about this place, too”, she explained.

 

“What? No, I wasn't. And now I'm even less curious than I was”

 

“Dig, you're such a bad liar! Not like Oliver, oh Gosh, Oliver is probably the worst liar I have ever met so far, but you, John Diggle, are not better than him!” she exclaimed.

 

“Hey, that's unfair. You cannot compare me with Oliver. He's much worse than me”

 

Felicity laughed, and her laugh vibrated through the whole clearing.

 

“Yes he is. But you non the less wanted to take a better look to this place, just don't deny it”

 

He shook his head and smiled back at her. He raised his hands jokingly, in surrender. “There's no point in lying to you.”

 

Felicity was a lie-detector.

 

She laughed even more sonorously.

 

“Hey you two, what's so funny?”

 

And here was Oliver, shirtless, who had just come back and was standing behind them, a curious half grin on his face and food in his hands.


	4. Afternoon and Evening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody! Sorry for the late update. I've been a little busy during the past few days...  
> Anyway, here is Chapter 4!  
> I really hope you're gonna like it.  
> Once again, thank you so much for all the kind souls that left kudos to this story!

They had eaten some kind of birds and were now resting, lying lazily against the trunk of a big tree. Oliver was eating some fruits and had offered them to his friends. Diggle had accepted one of them, but its acidulous taste had dissuaded him from eating it. When he took the first bite, he made such a funny face Felicity burst into a laugh.

“It's not bad... if one can add some sugar. Much sugar”, he said.

Oliver chuckled and took another bite. He loved that sour taste in his mouth. He loved the food Lian Yu offered him, he appreciated it like the precious gift it effectively was.

He was feeling serene like he had not felt in a long time. Since what had happened in Starling City, to be precise. Since the Glades. _Since Tommy_. He could not remember a couple of days he had smiled and laughed as much as he had done since he had met his friends again, the previous day.

He felt... happy, somehow.

And it felt strange, but also so very right. It was difficult to explain.

He sighed and took the last bite.

“Oliver?”. Felicity was calling him.

Her voice sounded insecure to his ears. She had probably tried to catch his attention calling his name once or twice, already, but he had been lost in his own thoughts and didn't hear her.

He turned, facing her. “Yes?”

“Can I... can I ask you something?”

“Sure”

“Something about the mask”

Oliver frowned. “Which mask?”

“The one on the beach”

“Oh”. Now he understood what she was talking about.

The black and white balaclava. Billy Wintergreen's mask. The one the crazy man had used when he tortured him. The one that looked identical to Slade's. The one he had impaled on a dried branch on the beach. He didn't even know why he did it. He just did. It was like getting rid of a nightmare, exorcising one of his biggest fears. Because, yeah, he had to admit that he was scared of that black and white mask. He was scared of the man wearing it, sure, but most of all he feared that balaclava and all the tremendous memories he had related to it.

God, that had been the first time someone had intentionally hurt him. No, not hurt. _Tortured_. It had been the first time someone had tortured him. It had been the beginning of his nightmare on Lian Yu. A nightmare that had started with the shipwreck and had become even worse when he had got there, on a place that he thought symbolized hope – hope to get back home soon, hope to be rescued by someone; hope – and that revealed itself to be his personal Hell.

And that, that was the mask of the Devil itself.

Oliver cleared his throat and pushed those dark thoughts aside.

“I'd prefer not to talk about this now”, he told Felicity.

He noticed Diggle's disapproving glare. He knew his friend only wished the best for him, and he thought it was a good idea to share his discomfort with other people, instead of keeping everything inside him. So, his response to Felicity's question wasn't what he had hoped for. Once, the former soldier had told him that nobody could keep everything inside and not lose their mind. But, who knew? Maybe he had already lost his. Diggle had reminded him of Thea on that particular occasion; his little sister had once begged him to please let someone in, also.

But he couldn't. He wasn't ready, yet.

To be honest, he doubted he would ever be.

“It's something... difficult to talk about”, he explained. “I'm not ready. Not yet. But I promise you, the both of you, that when I'll be, I'll tell you the story of that mask, if you'll still be willing to hear it”, he said, squeezing Felicity's shoulder.

She looked at him in the eyes and noticed the sincerity in them, but also the silent plead not to push him, not yet. She smiled at him.

“Always. I'll always be willing to listen to your stories, whatever they'll be about”, she told him.

They smiled at each other, and Diggle looked away, suddenly incredibly interested in a little spider that was climbing on the tree's cortex.

That was the same, tremendous, horrible, scary spider Felicity saw at the corner of her eye. Oliver noticed her jaw clench and her shoulder tense, while her eyes widened. When she jumped on her feet and all but ran away as fast as she could, hiding behind a short bush, his jaw literally dropped on the ground. He was astonished.

“What the hell? Felicity? What's up?”, he asked, throwing Diggle a questioning look.

The other man shrugged, helplessly.

“It's that... monster!”, Felicity yelled back, from her hiding spot, pointing her index finger to the tiny black creature.

“Feliticy, that's a spider. A very little one”, Oliver said.

“Why, are there bigger ones in here?”, she asked, panic evident in her voice.

Oliver opened his mouth to tell her that, _yeah, effectively there were bigger ones_ , when a hadn covered it muffling every single sound he was going to make.

He turned his eyes on the owner of the hand – Diggle, obviously – and raised an eyebrow.

Diggle ignored him and answered in his place. “No need to worry, Felciity. There are not bigger ones, here”

“Are you sure?”, she asked, suspicious.

“Absolutely. Don't worry”

“Oh, thank God!”, she sighed, relief clear in her voice.

Meanwhile, Oliver was still trying to make muffled sounds and get free of Diggle's hand – not that he couldn't get rid of it, if he wanted to; he just did not want to hurt him. He finally managed to push his friend's hand away without breaking it, and gave him a hard look.

Diggle just shook his head.

“You were going to tell her something she'd better not knowing”, he whispered. “Are you looking forward spending the whole night trying to find and kill every big spider on this island? Because, you know, that's what she's gonna order you to do”, he said.

Oliver chuckled and murmured back. “Nope”

“Then for God's sake, Oliver, don't tell her anything. And wish she's not gonna see any of them in the next few hours” he whispered back.

“Yeh, you two!”, Felicity yelled in their direction, to draw their attention. “Stop tattling and just kill that animal please!”, she enjoined them.

“See? That's what I meant”, Diggle mumbled, before proceeding to kill the little creature, oblivious of the tantrum created.

“Done”, Oliver said to the IT girl.

“Oh, thanks!”, she exclaimed, relieved, and got out of her hideout. “Are you a hundred per cent sure there are not big ones? Because you know, I am so very afraid of spiders! It's something I can't control, a phobia. I hate them-”, she rumbled.

Oliver and Diggle exchanged a knowingly look. Then the billionaire turned, facing her.

“Don't worry, Felicity. I promise you, there's nothing to be afraid of”

he somehow managed to say it in such a convincing way, that oddly enough he didn't raise any suspicion in Felicity – their human lie-detector – for the first time since they met.

 

** **

 

The sun was slowly descending in the sky, painting everything in a beautiful shade of pink and yellow.

Oliver had spent the previous hours showing Diggle and Felicity how to shoot arrows. He knew they were bored, the island didn't offer any kind of entertainment and sometimes only a few hours could appear as long as days or even weeks. It was like the time flew slower there. And if you were not used to it – and Diggle and Felicity surely weren't – it could almost drive you crazy. Oliver knew it.

After all, there had been a time, once, when he had not been used to it, too.

Now, after years spent on Lian Yu, he had learned how to appreciate every single moment of peace he was blessed with. And at the very beginning, he had not had many of them, unfortunately. But in the last months of those long five years, those kind of moments abounded. He had learned how to keep himself busy enough not to be bored to death – or lose his mind.

He usually trained a lot in order to keep fit, because you never know what can happen, and the island had taught him that everything could happen, every time. He also spent a lot of his time hunting and drying meat and purifying water, and it was a really long process. But after all, it was necessary, if he wanted to always have stocks – and he knew how important stocks could be in difficult times.

So, sensing his friends would be bored after almost two days without doing nothing, and in order to keep them busy doing something that would also be funny, he had thought that learning how to shoot arrows would be entertaining, for all of them.

And it had revealed itself to be really funny.

He had never laughed so much before, he thought. Surely not in the last few years, never mind the last months.

Looking at Diggle's attempts to hit a tree that was right in front of him, attempts that always failed, and seeing Felicity's incapability in raising the bow and arrows simultaneously, had reminded him of himself, some years before, and that had made him smile. There had been a time when even Oliver Queen, _the infamous Hood, the Vigilante of Starling City that never missed a shot_ , had not been able to simply hit a very big tree right in front of him.

In the end, after many failed attempts and even more laughter, Felicity handed him his bow, shaking her head.

“I think we are both hopeless causes, Dig!”

“Totally agree with you on this one”

“So, what's your verdict, Oh-Arrows-Master?”

Oliver chuckled at the nickname.

“You both did good”, he honestly said.

They burst into a laughter once again, thinking he was making fun of them.

“Hey, I'm serious, here!”

Between the laughter, Diggle managed to ask him if he was joking.

“No, I'm not. You did both good, really”, he said again.

Felcity raised an incredulous brow.

“How is it possible? We missed the tree every time”

“Well, it was the first time you tried. I did the same, you know?”, he replied.

Diggle and Felicity were both incredulous. They looked at each other surprised, then back to Oliver, who nodded in their direction.

“The first time I tried, I missed the tree completely. Same thing happened the second time, and the third. It's not easy nor immediate to learn how to properly shoot arrows, trust me”

They looked at him like he had gone crazy, then at each other, and chuckled again, realizing he was right. None of them had ever had the honor to meet the famous Oliver Queen before the incident of the Queen's Gambit. They knew Ollie the playboy thanks to gossip newspaper, as everybody else. But they had only met in person Oliver the survivor, the man that had come back from an awful experience, grown up and mature. And that man could shoot arrows as easily as he could breathe. It just came natural to him.

So, to them, it was normal to think about him as the arrows-God. Now, picturing him as a 22 year old incapable of hit a tree, made them smile.

They came back to the crashed plane and ate dinner together, then sat down for the night. The last one on Lian Yu. The next morning, they were going to come home.

 


	5. Morning of the Comeback

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here we go. Last chapter is finally up.
> 
> I just want to thank again every gentle reader that left kudos or bookmarks - you're amazing, guys!

Felicity woke up feeling something wet falling through her eyes and hair. At the very beginning, she felt confused.

_It was raining inside her apartment? How could it be possible? She had to call a plumber, asap!_

Then she woke up completely and remembered she was not in her apartment, and that her current pillow and cover were none other than a sleeping bag, and not her beloved bed. The annoying backache that was bothering her should have been enough of a reminder. She stirred and got out of the bag, grabbing the glasses along the way, feeling the rain on her still warm skin.

She saw Diggle not far from her, still sleeping. She looked around for Oliver, but could not find him. She got out of the hull they had been sleeping in for the second night in a row, but outside it was raining even more. She noticed the fire was languishing and wondered if Oliver kept any dry wood inside the plane; she studied the place, but apparently could not see any of it.

Felicity frowned.

Where was Oliver?

A sense of panic was raising in her stomach. What if he had decided during the night that he didn't want to come back with them? No way they could find him.

She glanced around again. And again, she didn't spot him.

She sat on the same box Oliver was standing the previous night, and waited.

After some minutes, Diggle woke up too.

“Hello”

“Good morning”

“Good morning to you too. Already awake?”

“Yeah, I was sleeping exactly under that hole in the hull”, she said, pointing to her black sleeping bag, still lying where the water could hit it.

Diggle chuckled, finding this humorous. Then he noticed the IT girl had a serious expression on her face. He frowned, concern evident on his face. “What's wrong?”

She shook her head, frustrated. “Oliver. When I woke up, he wasn't here”

Diggle glanced all around.

“What if he has disappeared again?”

“No, he wouldn't just run away like a coward, leaving us here”

Felcity looked at him with a dubious expression. “He already did it”, she reminded him.

And she was right, of course she was. Oliver had, in fact, ran away from them previously, not telling them goodbye. He had simply left a note in Thea's room, telling her he couldn't stand the whole situation created by his mother, and wanted to leave the city. He also apologized to her and asked her to contact Diggle – sure he would tell Felicity as soon as he knew – and let him know about his decision. With the letter, he had left an allowance with a substantial amount of money for the both of them – more than they had ever seen in their whole life.

But that was another story. That was such a different situation Diggle could not believe it was going to happen again. He told Felicity not to worry and have faith in Oliver. He reassured her, knowing she needed it, and also confident to be right.

And he was.

Less that half an hour later, a very soaked Oliver came inside the wreckage, along with a good amount of fruit.

“Hey”, he greeted them. “I brought supplies”

Felicity sighed in relief, loudly. Oliver looked at her with a questioning look.

“Something wrong?”

“Uh, no, everything is fine” she said. “Just worried about the return journey”, she lied.

Oliver looked at the sky. “Don't worry. It's gonna stop raining soon. The ship won't have any problem to get here”, he reassured her.

“Fortunately!”, Diggle exclaimed. “I am daydreaming of a how shower!”

“Me, too!”, Felicity went on. “Oh, and of a bed. Like, a real one”, she said, massaging her sore back.

Oliver just forced a smile. He wasn't as excited as they were, but it was okay. He would readjust to civilization once again.

“Let's eat. We have to hurry up to get to the beach in time”, he said, sitting on the ground.

His friends joined him.

 

** **

 

In the end, Oliver had been right. It had indeed stopped raining. Only a few clouds remained in the sky and the sun was shining when they finally got to the beach, the same one they had arrived from.

They had to wait only for a few minutes before they noticed the silhouette of a ship on the horizon. The first one noticing it had, obviously, been Oliver, who pointed it out to Diggle.

“Ah, there it is!”, he exclaimed, relieved the guys they had made agreements with had successfully understood his indications.

It had not been easy for him and Felicity to explain what they wanted and convince the manager of the boat rental to satisfy their request, part because of the linguistic barrier, part because the guy thought they were just making fun of him. But, as they say, _money talks_ , and in the end the man had agreed to do what they wanted him to.

“Thank God!”, said Felicity. “I'm so excited to come back. Is this what you felt, Oliver, when you saw that fishing boat? No, no. I bet you were super excited, like, you were jumping for joy”

Oliver just grinned. “Yes, you could say that, more or less...”, he lied.

Truth was he had never felt something so overwhelming before he saw that little old boat. He felt happy and excited and frightened all at the same time. He could finally come home, but at the same time he had to leave _another home_ he had lived for a very long time, and that scared him. He could finally hug his mother and sister again, but at the same time he knew they would see a different person, that had nothing to do with the one they remembered, they had lived with. He knew he was not the same man, emotionally he was damaged and broken, and all his scars screamed volumes about it.

But at the same time, he knew he had a mission to accomplish, a promise he made his father, and he would not fail the man that had sacrificed his life to save him. So he had pushed aside all the hesitations and doubts and shoot an arrow that put on fire a woodpile and signaled his position to those fishermen. After all, he could easily pretend. Pretend to be someone else, pretend to be the boy he once was. Lie. Act. Pretend. Feign. He had learned all of them pretty well during the previous five years. The day he was rescued, he understood it was time to use all of his knowledge. And he did.

Now, once again, he was waiting for a ship to bring him back home. Only this time, there was someone else waiting with him. But all the fears, the doubts, they were still there. They were just the same. He wanted to get away, and at the same time to stay there. An inner conflict was taking place in his heart.

The boat approached and anchored in the sea in front of them, not far from the shore. An orange inflatable boat traveled the distance between the ship and the shore itself, and Oliver had a flash of the one he had arrived there with. It looked just the same. A Chinese man was maneuvering it. As he reached the shore, he greeted them in a stunted English, smiling politely. Diggle and Felicity greeted him back in that same language, shaking his hand. Oliver just nodded and saluted him in a perfect Chinese that made the man smile brightly.

They all got on the inflatable boat and in a few minutes reached the bigger ship that was waiting for them. It was not a modern, luxurious yatch, it was simply a white boat, but non the less it was clean and had a heated cabin with comfy chairs. After days in the forest, that could be considered a Paradise. And sure it was what it looked like for Felicity and Diggle. The IT girl immediately went in the below deck, collapsing in the soft chair the Chinese man was offering her. Soon she was followed by Diggle. The man squeezed Oliver's arm before getting in, leaving the billionaire the space he now clearly needed to readjust himself and say goodbye to Lian Yu, once again.

Oliver stayed on the deck, silently admiring Lian Yu from the sea. He just stared at the green of the forest and the dark silhouette of the mountains, impressing upon his memory the image the was seeing and would never forget. It was a breathtaking sight, and oliver felt a new emotion surfacing in his heart. He realized it was some sort of melancholy, and felt tears raise at the edge of his eyes. He took a deep breath and shook his head, closing his eyes and calming down.

He just stayed there, not even knowing how long. When he opened his eyes again, the island was only a tiny dark spot he could barely see from the sea. He got into the cabin with Felicity and Diggle, and sat on the remaining chair, not saying a word.

His friends just looked at him and felicity took his hand in hers, smiling, but respecting his silence.

Somehow, he sensed it wasn't the last time he would see that Lian Yu. And deep in his heart, he had to admit he was relieved about it.

 

\- END

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on my tumblr! [IceDrifter](http://www.icedrifter.tumblr.com)


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